Naruto was sore. Sorer than he had ever been in his life. And considering that his broken arm could heal within half a day, that was saying something. He cursed his own stupidity! What the hell had possessed him to disregard what Guy had suggested, and put on more weights than 20kg.

A week had passed since Naruto had met the odd neon-green duo, but so far in his life as genin, he could safely say that it had been the most productive. Given that his lazy ass sensei was not going to train him, he had gratefully agreed to Guy's suggestion of using weights to increase his speed, stamina and endurance.

Every day, he trained in the morning with his weights on, then went back to his apartment and dropped them off before joining his team. Every day since then, he had challenged Sasuke to a spar, and every day he had lost. Abysmally in some cases. But still, Naruto persevered. But it was what happened yesterday which took the cake.

They had just finished team training, which was a joke, and Naruto had just lost another spar with Sasuke when Kakashi told him to stay back.

A number of questions went through his head. Had Kakashi learnt of the scrolls? Had he learnt of his weights? Or that he had been training with Guy and Lee? Was he going to forbid him from it? As his sensei, could the guy restrict his training even more than he was doing now?

Kakashi waited until both Sasuke and Sakura were out of the ground before addressing the boy, who likely would start yelling. 'Naruto… You have to stop this!' He said bluntly.

A look on confusion spread across the whiskered face, 'What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?'

Kakashi resisted the urge to glare at the boy, 'You know what I mean, Naruto. I want you to stop challenging Sasuke every time you guys meet.'

Now Naruto was really confused, 'Wait what? How am I supposed to get stronger then? Aren't we supposed to spar with teammates?' Where was this idiot-sensei going with this?

Kakashi shook his head, 'Normally yes. But in this case, no. Yours and Sasuke's rivalry has gone beyond the point of normal competitiveness. Its damaging the teamwork, don't you see. You challenge Sasuke, Sakura gets angry, Sasuke gets moody for wasting time and then you don't work together well for missions.'

'But what about my taijutsu training?' Naruto couldn't give a flying fuck if Sasuke was a moody bastard. He was always moody.

'You can train with Sakura. That is when you have finished bringing your basics up to par with your teammates. Until then, Sakura will be training on her endurance and stamina. And you on your chakra control,' Kakashi gave him an eye-smile, trying to give what he wanted with but piece by piece.

Seeing that Naruto was about to argue, he continued, 'And when you progress, then you can start sparring with Sasuke again. Right now, it's nothing but a waste of time for both you and him. You're not learning anything by getting beaten around and he's not learning anything new by doing the same thing again and again.'

Naruto grumbled at the unfairness of it all. 'But I'm already better than Sakura-chan!'

Kakashi shook his head. Why did he have to get genin who refused to see what teamwork actually meant. 'Naruto teamwork doesn't mean you have to be stronger than your teammate. It means you have to be stronger together.'

The blonde ninja glared at his hypocritical sensei, 'Then why do you train Sasuke alone. Why is he getting stronger alone?'

Kakashi knew that the blonde had a point there. But he couldn't just tell him the truth. That Sasuke was truly a flight risk. And Konoha couldn't have its last Uchiha run away on his foolish revenge quest and get killed by his much stronger brother. He wasn't ready to face Itachi yet. And if Sasuke tried, it would undoubtedly result in his death.

But he decided to appeal to Naruto's sense of nobility. The ninja had that in spades. 'Naruto… I'll be honest with you… Sasuke's… too consumed with revenge. He needs my attention to stay straight. And with his Sharingan maturing, I am the only one who can teach him.'

Naruto only saw one flaw in Kakashi's answer. It didn't fucking have anything to do with him! Having Sakura train for stamina made sense, since hers was shitty. But that still left him. And his anger grew at the sensei.

'Fine!' he spat turning away rapidly, 'I won't ask him for spars or you for training!'

Unlike what his sensei thought, Naruto wasn't sparring with Sasuke because he had a fetish for being beaten but because he was analysing Sasuke's moves and katas.

For the past week, Naruto had stationed multiple shadow clones at different points so they could observe and take notes on Sasuke's fancy moves from different angles. Sadly, Naruto had realised two things after the first attempt at stalking Sasuke.

One, Sasuke lived in a flat, and not in the Uchiha district like he had thought. Two, he had a very good chance of running into his other fangirls who also stalked him. And being caught whilst stalking the resident heart throb was a bad idea. And so, Naruto had resorted to observing Sasuke during training.

Even sadder was the fact that Naruto couldn't hide clones to observe Sasuke's fight with Kakashi because the sensei was too observant. He would surely pick up on it and then he would have to confess what he had been doing.

Kakashi may have called for him after he had walked away but Naruto was too pissed to reply.

And so, Naruto after the 'team training' had changed his leg and arm weights. 20 kg was doing nothing for him and he had gotten used to it in three days. Instead of having 20 kg on his arms and legs, Naruto had strapped on 20 kg on each arm, leg, waist and chest and did his training with those on. So, a total of 80 kg on his person.

And he was paying for it now, as he trudged back, taking step after careful step away from Team Guy's training ground.

'Ughh,' Naruto grunted, having to sit on the bench nearby, exhausted and in pain as he was. 'I'm an idiot.'

'I agree,' came the reply from nearby in that droning voice he had heard two weeks ago.

'Ahh!' Naruto whipped around, and immediately his aching muscles told him it wasn't a good idea. He would have jumped if his body had been able to. 'Old man. Fancy seeing you here.'

The only response he got from the bandaged creep was a narrowing of his lone eye, 'Coincidental.'

Naruto snorted. If that was true, he would eat the Hokage's hat. But for now, he let the old man say that until he figured out what he wanted with him. 'I'm sure.'

In front of him was a different board game. This time, he recognised it instantly. Shikamaru used to play it in the academy. 'Shogi.'

'Indeed,' the man replied, already having set up the pieces. 'Also called the General's game. Do you know the rules?'

Naruto shook his head. He had never paid much attention, if at all, in the academy. 'No.'

'Hmm,' the old man nodded his head and without prompting, proceeded to explain the basic rules and strategies to him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man. What was this crippled freak up to? Naruto had realised that this man did nothing for no reason.

And so, he tried to figure him out, since it was too early to show up at training ground seven. Not that Naruto could even walk that far without taking his weights off.

The man inwardly smirked as the boy, without any prompting, had taken the seat in front of him, and was listening intently to him.

So what if Hiruzen had forbidden him to train the vessel? He never said anything about not playing a game with him. And if the boy was smart, as he knew he was, he would apply what he learnt from a simple board game to other, more useful things.

Naruto knew that he was going to lose every time he played the man. So, the first five times was no surprise. Not that Naruto wasn't learning. No, he was learning about his 'enemy' in this case.

The man never did anything without a reason. Every move was well planned, executed, and unpredictable. The man sacrificed his own pawns, rooks and knights without a second thought if it was going to give him a favourable position to trap Naruto.

What kind of man did that make him? Devious to be sure. This man was deception personified; Naruto was beginning to realise.

Was he like this in real life as well? Just as clinically efficient in combat? In personal relationships? Somehow, he didn't think the man had any personal relationships.

The man, for the most part knew what the boy was doing and it amused him to no end. Not that any of the amusement even showed on his face. The day this boy was able to read him was the day he would eat the Hokage's hat.

That's not to say he wasn't impressed by it. The vessel had improved since his time in the academy, he knew. Not just because of the reports he had gotten but it was also obvious. Whether that idiot Kakashi saw it or not, was another matter entirely.

If deception was a shinobi's greatest strength, then the mind was the muscle that wielded it. And the boy was improving his mind. Of that there was no doubt.

The boy was unpredictable and relentless, as he reset the board for the sixth time. He had that at least going for him. The boy was failing to adapt his moves, none of which were too clever, to his own strategies. But that wasn't the point. He was thinking how to outmanoeuvre him, which was the important part.

Too many nations train their vessels to be hammers, forces of mass destruction. But he knew better. In the Shinobi world, a ninja needed to be a scalpel as well as a hammer. A follower as well as the leader, the knight as well as the general. That was especially true for those such as Uzumaki.

True, the boy's development had been severely stunted by the fools in the academy. But better late than never. He knew he was taking a risk by meeting the boy like this every few weeks, but it was for Konoha.

Naruto smiled the sixth time his king got checked. He might have lost again, but this time it had taken ten moves instead of eight. He kept his smugness as hidden as he could, lest the man thought he had learnt nothing from the book.

As if he read his mind, the man asked, 'What did you think about the book?'

If Naruto was on edge before, he was suspicious now. How had the man even known he had finished reading it? 'I liked it. But I don't agree with some of his points.'

'Oh?' was the man's reply, with a raised eyebrow. 'You think you know better?'

Naruto shook his head. No, he had been cured of that idiocy in Wave. 'No, I don't agree with the part about not relaxing in front enemies and a shinobi should always resort to ninjutsu, last.'

'And why is that?' the man responded. Anyone can disagree just for sake of disagreeing but to present a logical counter-argument was another matter entirely.

Naruto shrugged, 'I think it's counterproductive to the idea of deception.' He knew such words now after having to look them up in the dictionary many times. 'If you are tensed, the enemy will likely be on their guard and expect something to happen. Why give them a head's up when you can take them off-guard.'

The man smirked, pleased at the boy for having reasoned as such. It was what he himself had said to the Nidaime years ago.

And so, he responded with the reason his sensei had given him, 'Because most of the time, it benefits more to show the enemy that you are aware of him and that you will not be intimidated or fooled. That you don't fear. It's better to make them fear you. If you are relaxed, you have more chances of missing when the enemy deceives you. Because while you were relaxing, you forgot that the enemy was studying you.'

Naruto had the decency to blush at being caught red-handed. However, it was time to take into account something he had learnt, and try for some active information gathering.

Naruto nodded, pretending to think it over. 'And I'm almost sure that the last few chapters were added in by someone else and not the Nidaime.'

The man stayed silent for a second. But then, unpredictably, he shifted gears, 'You have taken to learning from that neon-green wearing ninja.'

Naruto was having trouble keeping up with the man jumping from topic to topic. How did the man know about Guy? His eyes narrowed in further suspicion. This was getting weirder every time.

As if he had heard Naruto's unasked question, the man answered, 'I can see the outlines of the weights under your clothes. And your muscles are stiff and sore, judging by how you walked and sat over here. There are only two other ninja in Konoha who use such an outdated method of training.'

Naruto almost growled in protest at the insult to Guy. But then he remembered Tobirama's lesson of keeping his temper and releasing it an opportune moment. This wasn't it.

And from the look in the man's one eye and the crooked smile, the creep knew it too.

'What do you mean?' Naruto asked instead. 'Outdated?'

The man sighed audibly, which was a new, as far as Naruto had learnt about him. Unless the sigh had a purpose as well. A signal maybe.

'There are other ways of increasing one's speed and strength without loading unnecessary weights on himself.'

Naruto was now intrigued, 'Is it better?', he asked excitedly.

'Merely it has different results,' the man answered noncommittally. He was curious as to how long the boy thought he could keep up dancing around the issue. He hadn't been a veteran of two shinobi wars and not have learned that something else was troubling the boy.

In his opinion, if the boy kept fixating on his personal problems like a child, he would never get strong.

But it was no use telling him that… yet. The boy needed to come to that conclusion himself. Only then will it truly change him.

'What is it called?' Naruto asked the man, somewhat suspiciously. Guy had told him that nothing worth having, comes through taking shortcuts in life. And Naruto wholeheartedly agreed with that.

So, he was surprised when the man responded and it wasn't a shortcut. At least, it didn't sound like it.

'It is called Fuuinjutsu. Also known as sealing jutsu. It can be used for many things such as summoning weapons or animals to fight, or binding and trapping enemies. Explosive seals use Fuuinjutsu as well. In some cases, Fuuinjutsu is much stronger than ninjutsu or genjutsu.'

Naruto loved the sound of that. If he could learn one art and use it for so many different things in a fight. It would be awesome. He fought hard to control his excitement at such a prospect. At least until, the man ended his explanation with, 'Weight training can be done with weight and resistance seals but the method is… dangerous.'

'Dangerous?' Naruto asked confusedly. 'How so?' There goes his excitement.

'Sealing is a very complicated art, needing extreme chakra control, although not as much as medical ninjutsu. If the seals which are applied on your body go wrong, it can be… disastrous. Exploding limbs is the least concern then.'

Naruto blanched and nodded, knowing he wasn't going to be attempting anything that blow off his limbs anytime soon. 'Can Fuuinjutsu be learnt using books?' knowing against it but hoping that the man would say yes.

Surprisingly, the man nodded, 'The basics of the sealing can be learnt using books, yes. But then one needs the instruction of a Master.'

'I need a sensei,' Naruto admitted grumpily, having gotten tired of dancing around the sore subject.

'You already have one,' the man pointed out, now packing up the shogi board and chips.

Naruto eyed the scroll the man had taken out, weirdly. What the hell was he going to do with that? 'I need a new sensei. Kakashi teaches me nothing!'

'You are a genin. You are responsible for your own training,' the man replied, laying the board on top of the opened scroll, which had a weird design printed on it. Naruto's stomach did a backflip and he struggled to contain his shock.

He recognised the design. Somewhat. Barely. Knowing that the man would surely tell him of his failure of keeping his emotions in check, he shifted his attention on something else.

'I can't train myself all the time. I need some guidance,' Naruto grumbled to the old man. 'Even the Yondaime didn't get that good without a sensei.'

'The Yondaime's sensei was a fool!' the man spat and paused.

The creep seemed to be thinking of something because he didn't speak for a few minutes. Naruto could sense something was happening. He could sense the man gathering chakra. Although he didn't know how he knew that. But the man sat still, not doing anything.

What the hell was he moulding chakra for? And how the hell was he doing it? Both of his hands were on the table. He could hardly mould chakra without using hand-signs. Iruka sensei had told him that was impossible.

'I told you,' the man responded after a while. 'I am not going to train you Uzumaki. I am an old man.'

Che, what a ridiculous excuse. 'Hokage Jiji is an old. Doesn't mean he can't beat anyone in this village. And I'm not asking for training from you, Danzo-san. Just some tips.' Naruto had done his research on who the man could possibly be and had only come up with one possible answer.

And from the way the man had dodged his question about adding the last chapters in the book, or the way the man quoted Tobirama as if he had trained under him, had confirmed his suspicion. It was then merely the matter of finding out the names of the Second Hokage's genin teams and eliminate them by those he knew of and those he didn't.

He couldn't read the look in the man's eye but it seemed vaguely of… approval?

'You're wasting your time here, Uzumaki,' the man got up and turned to leave.

But Naruto had other plans, 'Do you have another book for me?'

The man half turned his head, and without speaking threw a black coloured journal to him. 'Go to the Hokage tower if you want a sensei.'

Wait… what?!

'What the hell does that mean?' he asked, looking up from the journal only to see the man disappear once again, just like last time. However, this time Naruto distinctly sensed the gathering and burst of his chakra.

'I have got to learn this jutsu,' Naruto mumbled to himself and noted that in the two hours he had been sitting here, his muscle soreness had decreased by a lot. He could even move properly now.

For the most part. 'Fuck!' he cursed, barely catching himself in time before he fell. He had definitely pulled something in his left leg.

And with, Naruto trudged back to his apartment to put his weights back. Guy had lent him Lee's entire set off body weights with the sole condition that he not tell anyone. And Naruto had readily agreed.

If he didn't want his team knowing it, it was expected that Lee would want to hide it from his rivals as well. As to who they were, Naruto had no clue. The moment he had taken off his weights was like heaven. Naruto felt like he was walking on air and laughed at the top of his lungs.

Any passers who would have heard the cackling would have undoubtedly labelled him as finally losing his mind. Naruto felt great, until the moment he took an unweighted step and promptly fell over his face.

'Ughh,' Naruto grunted as he got up. 'What the hell!'

He was left so out of balance not having nearly a hundred kg on his tiny body that he had completely lost his balance. But there was no time to dawdle, getting used to the free feeling for the few hours that he would be with his team.

'Okay, you can do this Uzumaki!' he said to himself, crouching down in the racer position and readying himself. And with a burst of chakra from his feet, Naruto was off like a bullet. Or at least, a wonky and curvy bullet that found it hard to go straight.

Granted, Naruto had fallen and nearly crashed many times, but he had managed to get himself to the bridge, in one piece, where Sasuke and Sakura were standing.

And just like he had predicted, Sakura's shrill yell emerged from her throat the moment he showed up in front of them, not even needing his eyes to see where they were. He had sensed their position from two blocks away.

Why was he able to sense chakra signatures now? He didn't know, but it was cool nonetheless. Maybe he could train this ability somehow. 'I need to ask the old man about it next time.'

But for some reason, Naruto got the feeling that telling Kakashi-sensei or even the Hokage about his meeting with Danzo was a bad idea. Why he thinks that, Naruto has no idea. But it seemed like the logical thing to do.

'NARUTO! You're late!' Sakura whirled towards him, and intent of punching his head like she was used to. She decided against it when she saw his state, 'Eww, baka! Why are you so sweaty? Get away from me!' she yelled disgust clearly written on her face.

While Naruto felt hurt, he refused to show it. 'You're the one who came close to me, Sakura-chan!' he teased, stepping even closer to her.

'Eeeewww,' Sakura squirmed away, not wanting his sweat anywhere on her dress, her eye twitching, she lashed out with one right hook to the boy's head, fuming!

'Ow ow ow, Sakura-chan!' Naruto rubbed the bump on his head. He could have dodged it but decided to see if they had noticed anything.

Whilst Sasuke had raised an eyebrow when he had shown up, the teme soon turned his head away, safe in the knowledge that Naruto was still an idiot.

'What's your problem, teme?' Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes at the arrogant Uchiha, all the while stepping closer to Sakura making her wrinkle her nose and step away.

'Your sweating like a pig, Naruto-baka!' she yelled, intent of pushing him away with her hands.

Sasuke turned and glared at his idiotic teammate, 'You got winded just by running all the way here. Can you be anymore pathetic?'

Naruto closed his fist in front of his face, 'Oh yeh, smartass. You won't be saying that when I whoop your ass without even trying.'

Before Sasuke could answer, Sakura' punch bounced off of Naruto's head. 'Ow. Sakura-chan!'

'I said get away from me you sweaty fool!' Sakura wiped her hands off of her green biker shorts.

'Hn… You haven't managed that even once,' Sasuke smirked, content with the knowledge that the dobe could never challenge him if he couldn't even stop Sakura's punches. Granted, they seemed like they hurt, given the lump forming over the dobe's head but still.

'I'll show you, you jackass,' Naruto spat heatedly, pointing his finger at the arrogant jerk but inwardly he was smirking. It seems that neither had realised anything else. He was worried for a second that they would notice the change in his speed. Or maybe the teme had and was pretending not to. Naruto knew now after Zabuza and especially Danzo, not to be cocky.

'Hey! Don't call Sasuke-kun that!' Sakura yelled at him, grinding her teeth.

Now it remained to be seen if it would work with Kakashi. On that note, he didn't have much hope. If Danzo had realised it, then Kakashi surely would.

But it wasn't like he was doing anything illegal.

'Hey, how about some warming up sparring,' he said grinning at his teammates. If he didn't make an effort, it would look quite suspicious and he didn't want to make Kakashi more suspicious of him. There was no need to give him a reason to snoop on him if there wasn't one.

'Dream on, dobe,' Sasuke replied and promptly ignored Sakura's agreement with him as he walked to sit under a tree in the shade.

Sakura was momentarily surprised that Naruto had turned to look at her and not at Sasuke. 'Baka! Why would I want to spar with you,' she sneered all the while inner Sakura was fuming, 'Cha! What is that dobe think he is doing? Trying to be cool like Sasuke-kun so he can impress us! How pathetic!'

Naruto shook his head is resignation, 'Why do I even try?', he mumbled to himself before something else caught his eye. The Truthfully, he had already mastered the tree walking exercise when he had gotten the scrolls – which he now suspected were from Danzo – and had taken to climbing trees with his weights on. But doing the same thing every day, after his endurance and stamina training had left him a bit bored really.

Sighing dejectedly, Naruto sat down on the bench and took his newest, this time aware of the looks Sakura was giving him when she spotted him.

Sure, he didn't want to give away too much of his training to his teammates, but he couldn't realistically hide everything.

If he was spying on the teme and trying to figure out his fancy moves, he had to be ready for the fact that at some point the moody bastard might get nosy and try to do the same to him. Or if not him, then Kakashi would get curious at some point.

To his credit though, he had left the book Danzo had given him at his house, hidden in one of the many places Naruto uses to stash things of importance.

The bandaged creep clearly wanted something from Naruto. While he didn't know what it was yet, he was willing to indulge the old man if it meant that he could help him. After all, Naruto needed all the help he could get.

This however, was a book on trapmaking that Naruto had stolen from the library. Unlike the civilian in the shops, he couldn't fool the chunin who worked in the library with a henge. And if she caught him doing so even once, his late-night trips into the library would be at an end.

Sasuke was now very aware that something was going on. Something…. Wrong. Purely by the fact that the dobe was reading! Whoever heard of such a thing?!

Truthfully, he had been a little surprised, not to mention annoyed, at the amount of times the dobe challenged him to a spar. Given that the blonde idiot lost every time did nothing to deter him, annoyed Sasuke even more.

He couldn't waste time on sparring with such a dead last. At the very least Kakashi could do, other than train him to kill his brother of course, was give him a decent sparring partner. When the Jounin bothered to show up not so late as he usually was.

Sasuke already had too much on his plate and couldn't be bothered to be slowed down if he had to carry the blonde in his training as well. Which was why he had mentioned it to Kakashi, knowing that the one-eyed cyclops would put an end to Naruto's challenges.

Not for Sasuke's reasons of course, but because in his opinion it was affecting their teamwork. Which suited Sasuke just fine.

Why couldn't he just train with Sakura. Those two went well together. Well, that might not be such a good idea since he didn't even seem to be able to take one punch from her. But their strength levels were similar. In fact, the only thing that Naruto actually exceeded Sakura in, was the absolutely insane amount of stamina he had.

Other than that, his basics were horrendous while Sakura's were decent. His taijutsu was horrible and he only knew one ninjutsu, and couldn't seem to get even the basic jutsus like henge or clone right. Not to mention substitution.

Sakura however, was strong in the basics and even knew more than a couple of genjutsus. If only she would train instead of fawning over him, she'd be stronger than the dobe. Sasuke was sure of it.

And that in turn would help the team more than the fool's antics. It seems Kakashi had realised this as well, and had begun setting Sakura tasks to improve her overall strength.

And yet, for all those faults, the dobe didn't seem to realise how much of a dead-last he really was. And that annoyed Sasuke more than he could put into words. And now, for the past week, Sasuke had been getting the distinct sense that something was… changing.

And what bothered him more was that he couldn't put his finger on it. The dobe was the same. The same orange, wearing idiot who couldn't even climb trees successfully, even after all the training they had done in Wave.

Kakashi had told him that Naruto was still tree walking for chakra control. What a joke! Sasuke burnt with anger every time he thought about how Haku had beat him around, how he wasn't fast enough to catch the ice freak.

'But how the in the hell had Naruto beaten him? That shouldn't be possible? It must have been a fluke or Haku must have blundered so badly that even the dobe could have gotten the upper hand.'

Sasuke was sure that without some assistance, the idiot could never have beaten Haku. All Naruto had done was kept throwing his clones for them to get slaughtered. That seemed to be his go to solution to every problem. What an idiot!

Yet, where did he even get that book from? The library? Or did he ask Iruka? And why was he reading anyway? The dobe had always seemed like the act-first-think-later ninja, if he could even be called that.

Now, it was all but confirmed that something was changing as both him and Sakura watched with gaping mouths – although he had quickly gathered himself – as the dobe settled on the bench and took out a book of all things.

Was this an imposter, was Sasuke's first thought? In the academy which was barely two months ago, Iruka had barely managed to make Naruto open a book for four years.

And now, the dobe was voluntarily doing it? Something was going on and Sasuke didn't like not knowing what.

Che! Whatever. It's not like he could be a better ninja by reading books. With that final thought, Sasuke averted his head and got back to dreaming about how he was going to make his traitorous brother pay for his crime. How he was going to gut him, then incinerate his guts while he watched then feed them to him. Then kill him slowly, painfully and mercilessly.

Ah yes, those thoughts did him good. Especially since he had now finally awakened his Sharingan.

'Chanaro!' Inner Sakura fumed, looking at the dobe. 'As if it wasn't enough that the dobe tried to copy Sasuke-kun to try to impress us and now he's trying it by a book. Well, we won't even bother with him. That'll teach him a lesson.'

Outer Sakura immediately nodded her head and agreed with her inner version, turning to Sasuke-kun to rant about Naruto's stupidity.

Naruto, instead of paying attention to his teammates was much concerned with the fact that he sensed Kakashi's presence but the man hadn't shown up anywhere near them, visually. Was this a genjutsu like the old man had used in their first meeting?

He didn't look up towards where he sensed Kakashi, wondering how long the man was going to do this. Instead, he continued reading his book. It was quite fascinating honestly. Naruto was pleasantly surprised to see that he had been using some of the techniques in his own pranks. Naruto grinned in excitement. Sneaking into the Chunin section of the library was a great move on his part.

AN: I get your point about the quotation marks, but mate, I'm English. I've always been taught to use single quotation marks for initial quotes, and then double quotation marks for quotes within quotes. So that's what I'm sticking with. Also, my computer has the ' as default and whenever i need " I need to press Shift and 2. And i can't be arsed to do it every time.